CHICAGO SUN-TIMES:
BY FRANCINE KNOWLES
BUSINESS REPORTER
December 19, 2000
Responding to complaints
from union members in Chicago, the Labor Department asked the Washington-based
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union International to hold a hearing
to justify placing Chicago-based Local 1 under trusteeship more than a year
ago.
Rank-and-file members of
Local 1, a union with a history of problems and the subject of past
investigations into alleged mob ties, are protesting the trusteeship, which
they say is illegal.
They also question why
some Local 1 officers remain on the payroll during the voluntary trusteeship,
which international representatives said was put in place because of financial
problems at the local.
The local represents
14,000 maids, bartenders waiters and waitresses at downtown Chicago hotels and
restaurants.
"Without that
hearing, [the trusteeship] is not considered valid," said Labor Department
spokesman John Peterson, who noted a voluntary trusteeship--which is undertaken
with the support of local leaders--is unusual.
Some critics charge the
trusteeship, particularly absent a hearing, has left members in the dark,
without a voice in local affairs, and stifled members' participation at a time
the local was becoming more democratic.
"I think it has
definitely hurt the membership," said Jim Michalik, who was defeated in a close election for
president at the local in 1999--the first contested election at the local in 16
years. "It's hurt the democratic process that we had gotten started."
International General
President John Wilhelm and the local's trustee, Henry Tamarin, say the
trusteeship remains necessary because of continuing financial problems at the
local. They argue that the local needs stronger footing before contract
negotiations take place with major downtown hotels in 2002 and to aid the local
in organizing 20 new hotels that have opened with non-union employees in the
past few years.
Union members say while
they resent financial mismanagement, they also oppose an open-ended trusteeship
that they say has the international indefinitely calling the shots. They say
locally elected leadership should be put in place quickly to correct the problems.
Tamarin said no date has
been set for new elections, which would return the union to local control, and
he wouldn't speculate on when that might occur. But a hearing on the
trusteeship, open to the rank and file, will be scheduled after the holidays
and take place in Chicago, he said.
The union has had a
history of problems. Former International President Edward T. Hanley and his
son, former Local 1 President Thomas Hanley, were forced out amid charges of
misusing union dues to pay for ghost staff, luxury automobiles and a $2.5
million jet for officers of the union, whose workers are among some of the
lowest paid in the country.
A federal judge earlier
this month ended five years of court oversight of the international union. That
monitorship was designed to rid the union of corruption, and settled a
racketeering lawsuit brought by the federal government, which said the
objectives of the monitorship have been substantially achieved.
Regarding Local 1, Tamarin
said an audit conducted at the end of last year shortly after his arrival found
that the local "was one step short of bankruptcy."
"There's no question
there was financial mismanagement," Wilhelm said. But the mismanagement
did not violate labor laws, and is insufficient to warrant terminating former
officers, he contended. They remain on the payroll at Local 1, reassigned as
business agents--some drawing salaries of around $70,000 annually.
Critics argue former
leaders bear responsibility for the local's financial condition and should be
fired.
"One of the greatest
aspects of anger by the members is the fact that they have kept all these
[former officers] on staff drawing salaries," said Pablo Garcia, who was
part of Michalik's slate.
Tamarin said when the
trusteeship began, debt at the local, which has a $4 million annual budget,
totaled $1.2 million. Since then the local has paid off about $200,000, he
said.
Salaries have been cut by
10 percent for former officers
whose salaries exceeded $50,000 a year, and officers have been reassigned as
business agents.
Business agents' pay
ranged from above $40,000 annually to the upper $70,000 range before the wage
cut.
Tamarin said he also
implemented a dues increase in January of $1.30 per member per month that had
previously been approved by delegates.
But that's also drawn
criticism.
"Members are
upset," said Michalik. "They don't feel they are getting their
money's worth now."